Another Inspiring Trip to Quilt Festival!

I'm not sure how many times I've been to Quilt Festival in Houston. Maybe six or seven. It's always such a delight and I always come away full of inspiration and ideas.

I didn't take very many pictures, but I'm happy to share a few with you. They may give you a taste of the experience.

I was thrilled to have two quilts in the Studio Art Quilt Associates special exhibit Balancing Act! It was also a pleasure to have an opportunity to speak about my quilts at the gallery walk on Friday and Saturday morning. 

Lots of people gathered around for the gallery talk and it was wonderful to hear from the other artists in attendance.

I caught a glimpse of my beloved blue stripe. Can you believe I didn't buy any? I feel I may be getting a little too attached to it and I need to force myself to use something new. (But I know where to order it, if I must!)

Here's my friend Rachel making a toast at the artists dinner to celebrate the special exhibit Affinity. My friends inspire me as much as their quilts.

Like I said, I didn't take many photos, but here is Lillian's Expectations by Bobbi Baugh also from SAQA's Balancing Act exhibit.

I love this quilt and I'm especially entranced by these birds tumbling out of this jar. What is that about?!

I will say the lighting in the SAQA exhibit makes it really hard to get a good photo. You can probably tell from my picture up top and from these pictures of Lillian's Expectations that the spot lights on the quilts make some areas incredibly washed out and others annoyingly dark.

I taught two mini-workshops at the Fiber on a Whim booth. Here's one student's Small Stitched Landscape.

 Look at this beautiful detail of stitched doors from Sarah Bell Smith's quilt Doorways.

Since I've been using ladders in my quilts, I'm noticing them more often. Here is Mary Ann Littlejohn's quilt Agreement House.

I always love the Tactile Architecture special exhibit. I was drawn to the quilt and immediately suspected it might be the work of Ludmila Aristova. It was!

Ludmila is a world-class, critically acclaimed artist and here's her quilt... just one of many others hanging on the floor at Festival.

My friend Sarah Smith was not able to come to Festival this year so I snapped a picture of her quilt in the Small Art Quilts category. It's the pink lily second from the left.

I loved this piece from the In Full Bloom exhibit. It's titled The Garden Angel by Jeanette McCall.

I'm in love with the combination of hand stitching around the edges of the pieces with the free motion stitched bird and branches in blue.

I bought just a few items... including this hand dyed burlap from Fiber on a Whim. The color and texture of this fabric is full of potential!

I'm already looking forward to next year.